Don’t Dump Bumpers – Revive Them

One solution MTA member Paul Young wants is for the panel repair industry to look at using refurbished bumpers more often – rather than throwing them away – as a workable way of reducing waste.

“The cheapest solution at the moment is for me to cut the bumpers up and chuck them in the van and take them down to the tip. It costs forty bucks, and I can get rid of around 70 bumpers that will take a thousand years to disappear,” Paul says.

“I hate it, and I am not a tree hugger. But we are doing our bit refurbishing them and it’s something others need to think about.”

Paul’s business, Bumper Replacements Auckland, has been in the bumper business for decades.

Paul’s been repairing plastic bumpers since their inception in the 1980s and has seen the practice of dumping repaired bumpers in favour of new ones become more prevalent over the last decade.

He has a team of dedicated plastic bumper repairers welding and sanding bumpers, giving them a second life and would feel a lot happier if the practice became the norm rather than a little used second choice.

Paul says there is some resistance from panel beaters about using a refurbished bumper, because they are never going to be like a brand new one. He freely admits there can be extra finishing needed on a repaired one, but no more in his opinion than preparing a new plastic bumper.

What needs to change is the practice of insurance companies allowing new bumpers to be used when a second-hand one would do the job.

“That is something that has evolved over the last five to ten years, the insurance companies are saying yes [to a new bumper] when they should be saying no,” Paul says.

“It is a real problem, and it is all quite frustrating.”